All Settled In

[Masterlist]

Finally breaking the curse of never writing more than three chapters of new projects. Not the most whump-packed of drabbles, but it mostly serves to conclude the setup of Caged Canary.

Continued from Birdcage.

contents: hero/villain whump, captivity whump, hero whumper, defiant winged villain whumpee, dehumanizing nickname, cage, collar, food, swearing.

~~~

How much further was Bradley going to go? This was just the beginning, the first day, and he had already stripped Oscar of his name and locked him in a cage. He wouldn’t stop at that, that much was obvious, but Oscar hadn’t figured him out yet, had no idea what he would come up with, and that terrified him.

Once he couldn’t sit still anymore and had to come back to reality, no matter how messed up it was, he jumped to his feet and started to pace around the cage. It was large enough that he could do that - it encompassed the entire length of the wall of the large trophy room, and he had a feeling there was no such thing as a tiny room in Bradley’s house. The ceiling was ridiculously high as well, and that brought him the most relief, since it allowed the cage to be fairly tall. He could spread his wings, extend them as far as possible, without being confined by the cage, and he could fly. He leaped up for the first time in days, propelled himself with his wings, and gripped the highest point of the cage where the bars connected. He examined the junction with narrowed eyes, slowly brushed his fingers over it in search of a weak spot, finally he pulled and pushed and tried to rattle the bars - no budge.

Whoever Bradley had commissioned had done their job well.

Birdcage

[Masterlist]

Continued from Proper Introductions.

cw: hero/villain whump, pet whump, defiant winged whumpee, captivity, dehumanization, caged, restraints, threats, forced name change, humiliation, manhandling, mention of strangulation, hand gagging.

~~~

“A bird joke. Isn’t that too original?”

“Couldn’t help myself”, Bradley laughed, draping a large towel around Oscar’s shoulders in an attempt to dry his wings at least a little bit. “Black birds are so serious, but canaries? They’re fun! They’re adorable! They’re… pets.”

Oscar’s stomach sank at that, and he swallowed. Deep down he’d known that was basically what Bradley had made him into when he decided to keep him - a phrase that made him nauseous the first time he heard it - but hearing it said out loud still felt like a punch, a series of punches, each more painful than the last.

“I’m not your pet, and my name is-” His words turned into a sharp mmph! when Bradley covered his mouth with his hand.

“Ah-ah, I know it, but I don’t want to hear it. You’re Canary now. Get used to it.” There was genuine sadistic glee in Bradley’s voice, and yet Oscar felt as if it was the glee of a first-timer, reveling in this unique opportunity to humiliate and threaten.

He had just been given a new toy, after all.

Caged Canary Masterlist

Read on AO3

When Oscar Welles, a lesser villain, is hunted down by celebrity hero Bradley McKenna, he naturally expects to serve a sentence in prison - only to find out that Bradley decided to keep him as a trophy instead.

General warnings for the series: captivity whump, heroes and villains, winged whumpee, dehumanization.

Proper Introductions

[Masterlist]

Dusted off another old WIP, so here’s a continuation of Wrong Place, Wrong Time.

cw: hero/villain whump, winged villain whumpee, hero whumper, defiant whumpee, manhandling, captivity, restraints, police, forced name change, dehumanizing name, referenced drugging, trophified.

~~~

He was handled like cargo, sedated while Bradley dealt with formalities, and when he was finally allowed to sober up he wasn’t even given any time to process the revelation of what was going to happen to him; instead he was unceremoniously thrown in the back of a van, wrists and wings restrained. The officers handling him weren’t wearing uniforms, and the van was unmarked, a clear sign that whatever was happening to him was no longer official and constrained by protocols.

It didn’t instill him with optimism, to say the least.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

[Masterlist]

This is a concept I’ve been toying with since January, but it never turned into anything more fleshed out. Inspiration suddenly struck, so here it is now. I’m not promising anything, the story’s more or less just a loose idea, but I’d love to do more with it.

cw: hero/villain whump, hero whumper, winged villain whumpee, defiant whumpee, capture, falling from a height, pinned down, struggling to breathe, restraints, drugging, needles, police, implied future captivity, alcohol mention, swearing.

~~~

When Oscar was caught, air left his lungs.

For a split second he felt relieved in a strange, detached way - the panic that was pushing him forward as he zigzagged between buildings was suddenly cut short when his pursuer caught up to him, when cold metal wound around his wings, pulling him down. His eyes went wide and his stomach sank as he was stopped mid-motion, and the fear accompanying the realization that he’d been caught finally rang in his mind.

No.

He flailed wildly, trying to free his wings, the last desperate attempt to free himself before he had to put his hands forward to break his fall, but once again his breath was knocked out of him when he hit the concrete. When he tried to get up despite the metal rope keeping his wings stretched out on the ground, there was a strange whooshing sound and something, two somethings, landed on him, pinned his neck and legs down, stopping him when he flinched violently.

No!